Over at the blog Scribblings of the Metropolitician, Michael’s been ranting a lot lately, and I, for one, appreciate his thoughts on: Korean malenforcement of copyright and intellectual property laws, and, heck, any other kinds of laws when it comes to foreigners. The trade of sex trafficking and Korea: Part 1 and Part 2. Racist practices by two-bit newsmedia in Korea. Somewhere in one of those posts he linked to an excellent photoessay/podcast on the sex trade in Korea, which you should really check out. All of the above are very worthwhile links to follow. Go on, then…
Category: KOREA
Allow me to go change my underpants
The Korea Herald is unlikely to be updated in time for me to know what’s going on, but you know, when the air raid sirens went off this afternoon, I went there, after quickly visiting the Marmot’s Hole. The post I linked to wasn’t up yet, so I had no idea at all why the air raid sirens went off all over Bucheon. And here I am checking weblogs and online newspapers for information. I don’t have a TV or radio in my room, except the radio function in my MP3 player, which… oops, I don’t even know where the …
A reminder to all weirdoes… clean out before you move out…
So I was trying to figure out the reason behind the weird action of the drawer on the desk I inherited as part of this apartment — the same desk I’m intending on no longer using soon, because, as Lime put it, “It’s for middle schoolers…” — and I discovered a whole cache of weird detritus under the bottom drawer that had been mucking up the action of the slider. I can’t believe that in six months here (I was away for two months out of the last eight), I’ve never noticed this junk, but then, I had to slide …
Gettin’ Those Last Few Bites In…
Is there a Korean expression equivalent to “biting the hand that feeds you”? Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not American, and I’m not cool with everything the American government does — in fact, neither are most Americans I know and hang out with, which is something that gets lost in the rhetoric about America over here, just as much as it does in left-wing circles in Canada. Canadians know how to diss America. It’s the other national pastime, after hockey and digging out your car from the snow and voting for increasingly bad governments. But, let’s get one thing …
Okay, okay, I’m a bad person…
Yesterday, I didn’t just get T-shirts. I also got two Chuseok presents, one from Lime and one from the University. (The one from Lime was a set of high-capacity rechargeable batteries for my camera, which is a great present and which I’m charging up at the moment.) The present from the University is the one that made me think of myself as a bad person. You see, it was a gift-pack of Bertolli Olive Oil, with three bottles of the stuff — two bottles of “Original”, and one bottle of “Gentile”. Now, in Korea these days, people are thinking about …
Research Your Choices!
I had an interesting talk with a student today, who was considering a career in a foreign country. (Go figure, she came and asked me for advice.) The thing I asked her, since she was clearly asking me for advice, was whether she’d researched either choice — the career, or the foreign country. Now, I started out just dubious about the career, because this particular career was one that has long been (and is still widely) considered a “damn good job”©right; by surprising numbers of Koreans, and a rather-not-so-good one just about everywhere else I’ve lived. But later, it turned …
The First!
Today, fully two days after the Nork Nuke test, I finally had someone come up to me and bring the subject up. I actually managed to teach a full two-hour class [edit: I should clarify, this was on Monday afternoon] without anyone mentioning it (though the mood in the room wasn’t good and I wondered why), the day of the test [edit: and only found out about it after the class, because a friend had emailed me about it] . What can I say, I was coccooned in my creative writing for most of the day. But consistently, most of …
Dear Kim Jong Il
Dear Kim Jong Il, I got the news late in the day, because I was actually doing something constructive with my time. Unlike you. If there is a hell, you’re gonna drink the diarrhea of millions there, you little twerpy sister-fucker. I estimate that you have a couple of more years of life ahead of you, maximum. Enjoy the collapse of your pathetic pseudo-dynasty, you ugly little shit. That is all.
Man Can I Relate…
Sometimes I want to do this in class, too, when kids think that answering a phone and chatting is more important than a lecture, or that it’s okay to text-message during exams, and so on. Not that I would do this to a student’s phone, but I sure want to, sometimes. (Usually, instead, I ask, “Is this a life-and-death emergency?” when the phone rings, or, with repeat offenders, I take the phone and speak into it in English, or, once, in somewhat-simple but all-the-same-comprehensible Korean words, I informed the person’s girlfriend that he was in class and unavailable to talk. …
By the way…
To any and all readers out there celebrating Chuseok… I hope you had a happy, none-too-stressful one.